Affinity Designer: Rectification of transformed objects

[Pyanepsion]

Hello everyone,

I want complex transformed objects to become new objects without retaining their transformation properties (such as ‘Rotate -90°’). For example, here’s a simple square obtained after rotating an equilateral triangle three times by vertical and horizontal symmetry. How can I get all the triangles as a new blank object in one go?

Initial green object :
X = 5
Y = 105
L = 200
H = 100
R = 0

Let's move on to the red object.

This involves rectifying the transformed red object so that it has the values it should have had if it had been drawn by hand instead of using the transformation function.

Red object transformed instead of new object :
X=105 instead of 5
Y=5 instead of 5
L=200 instead of 100
H=100 instead of 200
R=-90° instead of 0

Your advice would be much appreciated. Thank you for your explanations.

shape-filling.afdesign

Edited July 30, 2023 by Pyanepsion
Clarification of the request

[GarryP]

Can you explain what the problem is with the layers as they are before you do what you want to do, and also explain what you would gain by doing what you want to do?

[carl123]

3 hours ago, Pyanepsion said:

This involves rectifying the transformed red object so that it has the values it should have had if it had been drawn by hand instead of using the transformation function.

If I understand your question correctly, do...

Layer > Geometry > Add on the Red object

[Pyanepsion]

I’m looking to rectify all the objects resulting from a transformation in Affinity Designer at once, so that they each have the same appearance, but without retaining any transformation values. This will allow a property to be applied to all the objects without the local transformation of each object disturbing the result.

Take, for example, a set of thousands of odd shapes that have been rotated and deformed individually. I want to remove this transformation information, so that each shape can be treated as if it had been drawn in its current position and orientation, without rotation, expansion or distortion.

This can be useful for applying a general orientation to a gradient over several objects, breaking up an image, applying a uniform effect over all the objects without being altered by local transformations, or modifying an object without having to perform complex calculations due to dilations, twists, rotations, etc.

Here are two examples:

1. Global gradient of the set resulting from the initial green shape resulting from a transformation, and the same thing from each object created by hand.
2. Global photo of the set resulting from the initial green shape after transformation, and the same thing from each object created by hand.

transform-rectified.afdesign

[Return]

Not sure what it is that you want.
If you rotate or have other transformations and apply the image to the total selection it doesn't matter as long as you "wiggle"the center node of the bitmapfill and the image will be applied to the whole.
Or if you want to have the image follow the transforming you can use the reset transform button on the contexttoolbar.

[GarryP]

1 hour ago, Pyanepsion said:

Take, for example, a set of thousands of odd shapes that have been rotated and deformed individually. I want to remove this transformation information, so that each shape can be treated as if it had been drawn in its current position and orientation, without rotation, expansion or distortion.

Thanks for the extra information.

If I have understood the requirements correctly, if you select the layers, then Geometry Add - or Merge Curves - then Separate Curves, the shapes should all have their rotations ‘reset’ – see attached video. (This might only work properly, in this case, if the shapes do not overlap, needs testing.)

I don’t know how this might affect SVG/EPS output though so you might need to check that if it’s important.

Edited July 30, 2023 by GarryP
Added clarification.

[Pyanepsion]

Thank you @Return for your suggestion about "raster fill". This does offer a workaround for working with images in a set of transformed objects.

@GarryP, your method works beautifully when the objects don't overlap. Unfortunately, it doesn't apply to the example I provided in the first post, where the objects overlap. The ideal solution would be to 'scatter' the objects, erase all traces of transformation and then return the objects to their original locations.

So the question remains open for more complex situations, especially when the objects overlap, which is often the case in practice.

I greatly appreciate your help, especially with the images, which as you both know were my immediate goal. However, there are other aspects of Affinity Designer that remain a challenge. If you, or anyone else, has any other suggestions, your advice will be much appreciated.

[GarryP]

4 minutes ago, Pyanepsion said:

Unfortunately, it doesn't apply to the example I provided in the first post, where the objects overlap.

I’m not seeing any overlap in either the image (rotated triangles) or the document (just open curves) in your original post.
What is it that I’m not looking at properly?

[lepr]

7 minutes ago, Pyanepsion said:

So the question remains open for more complex situations, especially when the objects overlap, which is often the case in practice.

Do Merge Curves (instead of Add) and then do Separate Curves.

[David in Яuislip]

Copy
Paste Special/PDF
will convert the triangles to curves and reset rotations to 0

[bigbrother8myfish]

Hello! I know I'm about a year too late, but I was having a similar issue as you, since I wanted to insert text into a shape that I had previously transformed, which meant that my text ended up being upside-down and backwards. So what I did was draw out a box behind my object, used the object to cut the same shape out of the box, and then seperated the curves, worked like a charm - however, not an ideal workflow for something that is continuously repeated. Sorry if you have already solved this yourself, there was no way for me to find a button to ignore the previous transformation history of the object, so this was the best I could do.

[Old Bruce]

9 minutes ago, bigbrother8myfish said:

I wanted to insert text into a shape that I had previously transformed, which meant that my text ended up being upside-down and backwards.

Try Grouping the shape with itself and then Boolean Add it with nothing. Or just try Boolean Add on its own first. Then the text should be correctly oriented.

[bigbrother8myfish]

Oh! Group and add did work! I was about to say that everything else I tried did not work, but group and add with nothing else worked great! thanks